Considerable resources are expended at hospitals and other health care facilities relative to the management of medical intravenous pole assemblies. A medical intravenous pole assembly can include a pole, a wheel equipped base, and various medical equipment (infusion pumps, feed pumps, and monitors). From time to time medical intravenous pole assemblies are transported from a hospital patient treatment location to another location. In one common practice a medical intravenous pole assembly after being used for treatment of a patient at a patient treatment location is moved to a central location, typically called Central Service (CS) or Materials Management. At the central location, an intravenous pole assembly can be disinfected and then dispatched to a next patient treatment location. Intravenous pole assemblies are continuously being moved from patient treatment locations to a central location for cleaning and maintenance and back to patient treatment locations. In order to increase equipment utilization and to increase patient throughput, attempts have been made to transport more than one medical intravenous pole assembly at a time. Specifically, workers at hospitals have attempted to move first and second medical intravenous pole assemblies simultaneously by grasping a first medical intravenous pole assembly with a first hand, grasping a second medical intravenous pole assembly with a second hand, and imparting a moving force to the two assemblies, e.g., by walking while holding the first and second assemblies.
Health care facilities expend significant resources in managing and tracking equipment assets. Intravenous pole assemblies are often unaccounted for between patient care locations and a central location. Some are later found holed up in closets or holding areas while others just go missing. Health care workers have been observed to stow away intravenous pole assemblies at undisclosed and untracked locations away from a central location out of fear that they will not be able to find one when needed. Such hoarded intravenous pole assemblies are typically not subjected to appropriate controlled cleaning procedures, as would be implemented at a central location. Because of the inability of health care facilities to manage the intravenous pole assemblies, facilities have been observed to continuously purchase additional intravenous pole assemblies including expensive pumps and monitors in numbers far in excess of that which would be necessary if a method for appropriate management of the assemblies were available.